adminZvamaida Murwira Harare Bureau
The Ministry of Mines and Mining Development has come under fire for unprocedurally funding its travel and subsistence expenses to the tune of $320, 000 through borrowing from the Mining Development Fund. According to the comptroller and auditor general’s 2012 report released recently, it was observed that the Ministry had borrowed $318,994 of the fund money despite that Treasury had not yet drawn a constitution governing its operations in terms of Public Finance Management Act.
“Therefore the borrowings were unconstitutional and in breach of Mines and Mining Development Fund constitution whose core objective among others is to support and sustain the mining tittles system. However a total of $108,283 had been reimbursed to the fund by the end of the year, leaving a balance of $210,711 which is still outstanding,” said the Comptroller and Auditor General Mildred Chiri.
She said as a result, the expenditure of $4,713,738 appearing in the appropriation account was understated by an amount of $210,711 being subsistence and travelling expenses incurred through the fund account and not reimbursed.
“The implication is that there is risk of undermining the government budgeting process if funds are borrowed unprocedurally and it promotes financial indiscipline,” she said.
The audit also showed that two receipt books with 200 pages were not available for audit.
It was also observed that the two receipt books had been signed for by the chief accountant of the ministry when ordered from Printflow but there was no evidence that they reached the ministry neither were they used for official purposes.
“Therefore the books could have been obtained and used clandestinely. There is risk that the receipt books could have been used for fraudulent activities with the intention to defraud the public in general and the miners in particular,” she said.
The audit also observed that officials were being paid cell-phone allowances in excess of their prescribed limits set by Treasury through Circular No 1 2010.
During the previous years, she said, her audit had raised the same issue where total excess of payments were $14,138 for the month of March to November 2010.
“The practice continued unabated in the year under review and the total excess payments were $3,633 for the months of December 2010 up to November 2011 resulting in a cumulative excess payment of $17,771. There was no evidence availed to audit that excess payments were recovered from the respective officials in the year 2011,” she said.
derick.khumalo